Hi we have been bee keepers here in Newfoundland for 3 years now with TBH and have been trying to follow as best we can the Natural way and we got 8 hives and 6 of the 8 had a terrible summer to gather stores(we had the rainiest coldest July on record) our bees have done great before this year and this was the year we spilt them by catching the swarms and rehousing them in new TBH's . When we checked them in the early fall we took note that they would need feeding and started with the fondant on the older empty combs like we saw Phil Chandler do , no problems there and now we are adding follower boards with solid fondant with a screen over that fondant , so far all good except my last batch of fondant is way too sticky.... will this cause a problem with the bees sticking to it over the winter should I just scrap that fondant and make a new batch ?? they are eating the fondant well that was dryer and had to re fill the fondant almost every 2 weeks ... fondant on the follower board was so they could have more as its going to get really cold here int he next few months and I don't want to open the hives up after Dec. so is this a good wayt o feed TBH's in all and winter (not many bee keepers in Newfoundland and all that are here are 95% Langstrough and don't know about the TBH style sorry if this is long winded but needed to explain what I am trying to do ... other winters they had all the honey they needed !!

Thanks so much for that , I will try putting the bags on the floor with slits , as well as on the follower board , we have extremely long winters here in NL so we will need to feed for many months to come if we are going to get them thru till April or even May!! We now have NL bee keepers association and have our first AGM this weekend, and this is my first time using this forum , its great to be in touch with other like minded bee keepers.

I have successfully made follower boards for all of our TBH's that can hold fondant by attaching a small edging to keep fondant from falling in to the hive body, after pouring and spreading the fondant I then have put a rigid plastic 1/2"grid staple to the edging to keep fondant onto the board.... all the bees are eating from it as their Honeycomb fill fondant gets used up , I now can make more and refill these over the next few weeks before our deep winter temps arrive, hoping that this will help us maintain some food source for our new hives throughout our very very long winter... we also get some really warm days in Feb. or even March, after very cold and blizzard like conditions so will be able to replace fondant boards during those times if necessary.

That sounds interesting, do you have a photo. One of my hives will need some feed over winter and I have found fondant absorbing water and then dripping or bees getting stuck in it so any ideas for a TBH welcome.

Hi , I will try to get a pic to post , new to this forum but will attempt !! I have just been checking the fondant in all 8 hives and so far so good, using Phil Chandlers way o f spreading the fondant onto the old empty HC is working best so far... We are just getting into near 0 to- degs here Cel. and we live close to the ocean with high humidity all the time and fondant is staying on the follower boards and not getting sticky. I did make a batch that turned really sticky and I decided not to put it in at all... it did this (as I make lots of fudge and candies) because I had forgotten to stir the sugar/water mixture as it was coming to the boil ... this causes a more clear taffy like candy for pulling... and really sticky too. I now have made 4 more batchs for the follower boards and being carefull to stir until boiling, it produces a better non sticky fondant ... and also to not use too much of the lemon/or vinegar and keeping to correct proportions as it also makes it too sticky... I have also taken to put mesh over the fondant so if it ever does fall it won't collapse onto the T op Bars of HC.

Conserving wild bees

Research suggests that bumble bee boxes have a very low success rate in actually attracting bees into them. We find that if you create an environment where first of all you can attract mice inside, such as a pile of stones, a drystone wall, paving slabs with intentionally made cavities underneath, this will increase the success rate.

Most bumble bee species need a dry space about the size a football, with a narrow entrance tunnel approximately 2cm in diameter and 20 cm long. Most species nest underground along the base of a linear feature such as a hedge or wall. Sites need to be sheltered and out of direct sunlight.